


We're All Mad Here

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aged up Shiro, American High School AU, Angst, Cuban!Lance, Galra!Keith except he just thinks he is an alien and is really given no answers about it, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Korean!Keith, M/M, Magical!Matt, Magical!Pidge, Medium!Hunk, Minor Matt/Shiro, PoliceOfficer!Shiro, Slow Burn, Supernatural AU - Freeform, aged up pidge, im not sure if i can angst properly, plot moves faster than klance tbh, shiro adopts keith, there actually might not be angst tbh, werewolf!lance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2017-03-09
Packaged: 2018-09-22 08:49:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9597992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: If they weren’t real detectives, why are they saving the world? They were not superheroes. They were just kids who happened to be descendants of some people who pissed other people off. At least they don’t have incredibly tragic backstories, right?





	1. 00

They say everyone who looks into their family history will find a secret sooner or later. Maybe its Uncle Marty’s affair with an old baker’s daughter, or possibly that your great-great-great grandmother drowned her whole family to marry a man they did not like. It could be mellow and that your relatives never found something overly awesome to do. Or maybe you’re just like some kids and find nothing or the instructions on how to activate an old family curse with notes saying not to follow them. Of course, you’d be filled with doubt and not perform it, right? That was Lance’s first mistake.

Lance’s second mistake was not telling any of his siblings that if you happened to do certain things that you turn into a werewolf. So now, naturally, he was sneaking out at night once a month since he was thirteen and had gotten pretty good at it. At least he thought he was. His sister, Ester, being as nosy as she was, started questioning him after four months. He, being Lance found it difficult to say anything and avoided the topic. At least she stopped questioning him vocally and instead gave him looks after a while.

Now Lance was friends with two other people, by the name of Pidge and Hunk. He never told them. They never really questioned him, knowing how weird he could be at school was enough for them. But unknown to their common knowledge, each of them had secrets including the world just beyond typical eyes. Hunk, for as long as he could remember, could speak to the dead. He learned so much from ghosts that sometimes he wished the police would believe him if he spoke up. As for Pidge, they have been working with spells and magic since they were a small child. Their knowledge was only fueled after learning to use technology and magic together.

But nothing could stop them from noticing the new kid, on the first day of their sophomore year. Not even if sometimes said kid is basically invisible. The new kid would probably argue that it’s just harder to notice him, not that you could approach him and question him anyway, though. But it was the fact that if it wasn’t for the new kid, none of them would have realized that the world spread beyond what they knew. Not only that, but help them solve mysteries that should be going right over their head. They weren’t real detectives.

If they weren’t real detectives, why are they saving the world? They were not superheroes. They were just kids who happened to be descendants of some people who pissed other people off. At least they don’t have incredibly tragic backstories, right?


	2. 01

“Welcome to hell, my friends!” Lance yelled as loud as he could without getting in trouble while hugging both Pidge and Hunk. “It’s another year of homework and worrying about graduating!”

“Welcome to Hell is actually good, for one. Second, we are coming back so shouldn’t it be ‘Welcome back to hell’?” Pidge pushed their glasses up and adjusted their backpack. “Finally, it’s not that it is hell, you just happen to not stay focused on your grades.”

“I passed all my classes last year, thank you very much!” Lance argued and scoffed.

“You had to attend summer school in order to pass your history class.” Pidge pointed out and continued. “You also had to go for your Biology class.”

“It only looks idiotic because you’re taking Advanced Placement classes.” Lance said and crossed his arms. “Not everyone is as smart as you are, Pidge. We aren’t going to live up to your standards.”

“Yet you’re the one who happens to have the standards.”

“Hey, maybe you shouldn’t fight over intellect level in the middle of the cafeteria at breakfast. I’m sure half of us aren’t morning people.” Hunk motioned over to a table and they moved over to it. He personally made sure he was between the two. “Besides, let’s just see if any of us have a class together.”

After taking ten minutes to figure it out, Pidge and Hunk had first and sixth period together while they all had fifth period together. That left Lance to be alone for most of the day to deal with his own problems. He was lucky enough to know the building enough to be able to find all of his classes. Soon after the bell rang, he was already in his class.

His first class was uneventful and he made his way down the stairs to his next class. The teacher had already put together a seating chart and he sat in the front corner. He sat down and gazed outside to the faculty parking lot and baseball field. The bell rang and the teacher just barely caught his attention. There was someone that was supposed to sit next to him but was not there. He was another sophomore but Lance did not recognize his name, Keith Kogane. No picture was there, meaning he had moved into the district recently.

Lance had lost interest once the teacher started going on about the class rules after taking attendance. But as soon as someone sat down next to him, he was back in reality. Another boy sat next to him, one who held his schedule tightly, as seen in the many folds in the paper. He probably got lost on his first day, by the looks of it. But by the looks of him, he seemed completely recognizable, with a mullet like he grew up in the eighties. So this was Keith, the boy he would have to sit next to for the semester.

The next class went by fast and Lance only realized that when he ran into the same exact mullet in his fourth period. Then found him again in his fifth period, where mullet-man, Pidge, Hunk, and he all sat together at a table with a teacher who seemed foreign, having a mustache to match. Pidge was going crazy, so happy to finally be able to be in the Electronics class. Hunk was excited but not as much as the small ball of hyper that was next to him. Keith, the mullet man, on the other hand, seemed to share the same expression as the other two classes he had with him. He seemed bored. But soon enough they were left to talk as a group and learn about each other. Naturally Pidge started shooting questions off at Keith.

“Wait, Pidge, we probably shouldn’t go that fast. First impressions are proven to be first impressions.” Hunk stopped Pidge from naming off questions at inhuman speed.

“First impressions are proven to be first impressions? Who are you, Lance?” Pidge fired back and Hunk took a second before realizing that he didn’t get his full sentence out. On the other hand, Lance seemed completely offended.

“Pidge, that sounds nothing like something I would say!” Lance argued, slamming his hands down onto the table. “But introductions first then questions, he’s from out of the district.”

Pidge examined Keith before looking back to Lance. “How do you know he’s out of the district?” They looked back to Keith. “Are you from out of the school district?”

“Yeah, I am.” Keith hesitated before answering and Lance smiled, muttering a small ‘I told you so’ to Pidge. Pidge sighed and motioned to Lance.

“This is Lance, I’m Pidge and this guy right here is Hunk.” Pidge motioned to each of the boys beside them. “We’ve been friends since sixth grade, unfortunately.”

“See, you’re the one with standards. You just basically said that you were ashamed to be friends with us.” Lance cross his arms and adjusted himself in his seat.

“Anyways, ask us questions. We can ask you questions. It doesn’t really matter.”

“Where’d you come from?” Lance asked quickly and Pidge rolled their eyes.

“Texas.” Keith responded simply and Lance examined him.

“If you’re from Texas, shouldn’t you have an accent?” Lance asked and was hit in the arm by Pidge’s elbow.

“You three have an accent to me.” Keith stated and Lance seemed to glare more than examine him.

“Well it’s Northern California versus Texas.” Pidge concluded. “It’s only a few states between so depending on what part of Texas you are from, it might not be that big of a difference.” They paused. “Is there anything you want to ask us?”

“Pidge, we don’t even have his name.” Hunk whispered over in the general direction of Pidge.

“It’s Keith.” Lance answered for Keith before getting a questioning look from Keith. “Dude we’ve had two classes already. I kind of figured it out.”

“With that out of the way, any questions?” Pidge asked and stretched.

Keith pulled out a green paper, noticeably a schedule. “Do you guys know where room 130 is?”

“That’s easy. It’s on the first floor because it starts with the number one. Then it would be on the side with the attendance office because it has a number between fifteen and thirty.” While Hunk explained it, Lance dozed off. Without even having to look, he knew that he had another class with the mullet sitting across from him. Four classes every weekday with someone he wasn’t sure if he could be friends with or not. Maybe he was going to be forced too, seeing that Pidge and Hunk have certainly taken a liking to him.

Lance stayed in his own world until the class ended. Then he was tasked by Hunk to lead Keith to their next class. It wasn’t that hard, just a few classroom away. They didn’t talk the whole way there. Their teacher didn’t seem to care where they sat so Lance sat down on the side. Keith had sat down next to him.

“You know you don’t have to sit next to me in every class.” Lance muttered as he took his binder out of his backpack.

“You’re kind of the closest thing I have to a friend here.” Keith muttered back, a bit of annoyance leaking into his tone. “Apparently I’m not very welcome.” He seemed to start to get up but stopped once he realized all the seats were taken. “Now you’re stuck with me.”

Their last class of the day went off slowly. Their teacher was slow at making sure everyone understood the rules of the school and the classroom. Lance had lost interest quickly, thinking to how Pidge and Hunk were going crazy about blowing stuff up in Chemistry right now. He would have been with them if he had gotten into Algebra his eighth grade year. Instead he took Pre-Algebra again.

Soon enough he found himself outside, taking a deep breath of fresh air. Keith was long gone and he could now go home, away from the responsibility of school to the responsibility of home. The bus was a bit late getting to the school but it gave him some time alone, despite the crowds of people rushing away from the building. At least he had some time to himself before his brother and sister joined him for the bus ride, then the walk home.

Their family was the cliché, large Spanish family. Both his parents fled Cuba before they closed their borders and his dad was lucky enough to bring along his parents. There were sixteen of them, including him. So naturally they couldn’t fit in the normal houses around the area. No, they had to have the farmstead his father grew up on and helped build. Even with its size, people shared rooms but that didn’t matter because they were all there, together.

The property owned by the McClain family as happened to be seated next to a large forest. Lance enjoyed this, knowing that he had somewhere he could turn and not worry about his family. At least he hoped, for as long as he walked out there beforehand, they better be safe. He was too close to any of his family that it would tear him apart to have their blood on his hands. Or any blood, for that matter.

But with that thought also is the idea of them learning of his burden. If they did, they would disown him, even if their family is extremely diverse. But if they didn’t, they would baby him for eternity. Their eyes, especially his mother and grandmother, would be filled with pity so much that it would drive him insane. But then, one full moon, one of them would believe that he couldn’t, and wouldn’t, hurt them even in his wolf form. Then the next morning, he would probably find them all dead. There was also the possibility that one of his two younger siblings wouldn’t understand and find the list to activate the curse.

That whole topic brought him to Friday, the next full moon. It was only Tuesday, meaning he’ll probably start feeling a lot starting tomorrow. Way to make a semi-good first impression and then be sufferable the rest of the first week of school. Just like Hunk had said a page earlier, first impressions are proven to be first impressions. His life was going to be hell the next few days.

When the bus finally got to their stop, Lance was glad. At least now he could think and walk ahead of his older siblings while they bickered as normal. Their mother should be home by now and knowing that, Lance was going to be doing chores since he didn’t have homework. For a while he tried to lie about having homework but his mom had some mad mother skills. She could tell he was lying almost immediately every time. Then he would have to go weed, mow, or something else tedious. So he enjoyed his time between school and home.

Now, it was cut short as a pickup truck including a couple and two children, his sister, uncle, and two cousins. A Spanish station played as they pulled over as Ester and Ramiro ran to get into the back. Lance did too, only regretting that he would just be getting home faster while his siblings didn’t care. They pulled into the driveway, dust quickly being picked up into their faces. None of them cared now, but they would later when fighting over the two showers available to them. That made Lance smile, even though he was going to be one of the people fighting over the showers later. Everyone here just seemed to live in the moment.

As soon as he had walked into the house, Lance was ordered to put his stuff in his room and get to work. He was lucky today, as his mother only wanted him to water the field. It wasn’t the worse, expect for the sun baking down on the earth. It was August, the sun wouldn’t calm down until early October at the least. On the other hand, the temperature would go down and wind would start to pick up.

It took him an hour to water the fields enough to meet his mother’s standards. When he got back inside, he wasn’t even given two seconds before being put to work for dinner. It was one of those rare, homemade meals. Even if it would seem normal for a big family, it was also extremely hard to do. This was one of those rare times. This was the last meal before Julian and Leandra went to college, either for the second year or the first.

Everyone was rushing around the kitchen except for his grandmother and father. He was put to work dicing up multiple ingredients, ranging from tomatoes to various herbs. All of which were probably grown in the garden his mother nurtured. With a big family and a large plot of land, of course they had a garden. What were they going to do with the land anyway? Make a goddamn garden!

With everyone’s help, dinner was made in just over an hour. Forty-five minutes in, Lance’s mother had tasked the younger children with setting the table, everything except the knives. That was left to Lance, being the third youngest. He was also in charge of bringing over the pitchers of water. Their table was so big that multiple were needed for sure and it was hard to keep a conversation between everyone for longer than a goldfish’s attention span.

Dinner eventually was set at the table. The smell of it dragged everyone to the table. No call was needed. Everyone was already downstairs to help. Multiple conversations ensued, older siblings asking about school and younger ones talking about making friends. Lance kept along with the mess, trying to focus on at least two conversations the whole time. Afterwards, the cleaning process, which Lance was glad to not be in charge of dishes on these days. He had once and was stuck at the sink for an hour and a half.

He stayed downstairs, playing with his younger siblings. It was hard thinking that the youngest of all of them was about to turn ten, not including the cousins. At dusk, they sat in the tree and watched the sunset before going back inside. He calmed them down as they did less energy consuming stuff inside before they had to be put to sleep. He went into his own room afterwards.

For what seemed like the longest time, Lance sat on his windowsill and stared off into the sky. The moon taunted him and he knew that these next few days, with the exception of Friday, are the closest he gets to see a full moon again. After checking his phone to see that it was almost eleven at night, he made his way into his bed. He placed his phone onto the charger and let himself drift off into sleep.


	3. 02

Lance regretted having a mother that insisted that you were healthy enough to go to school if you didn’t have a fever. He was right, that he was feeling the moon pulling at him and it was only Wednesday. It hit him like a rock about three in the morning, keeping him awake until the early hour of six when his mother demanded everyone be up. She ran the house, you listened to her. The only one that was above her was her mother-in-law.

He was the first to get to the shower, luckily. He wasn’t able to take one last night which means that his whole bed was probably covered in dirt. He also tried to be quick in the shower, only believing that up until the point that one of his siblings was knocking the door down. When he was dressed and got downstairs, his father and mother were already off to work. Everyone was crowding the kitchen, grabbing breakfast and almost spilling milk. He simply grabbed a granola bar and made his way back upstairs.

Lance sat at his desk, spinning in slow circles. Yeah, he’s felt this feeling before but every time it comes along, it always gets to him. It’s never as he remembers, just seems worse every time. By tomorrow, he should be used to it but today was another story. But soon enough his brother came to warn him they were walking to the bus stop. Luckily for him, on said walk, Ramiro and Ester distracted him enough to not think about it.

Pidge was the first to greet him when he got there. They were just walking up to the school when his bus arrived. They started going on about something that had happened last night until they got to the cafeteria. Hunk was there, sitting at a table, filling out a paper.

“Look, Hunk already has homework!” Pidge teased as they sat down making Hunk look up from the work.

“It’s not uncommon to have homework. We are in a school.” Hunk said and continued to fill out the paper. Lance took a seat between Pidge and Hunk. “Besides, it’s for sports medicine. You have to take a class before it so it’s just homework to learn what we know.”

“I thought you didn’t like Preventive Medicine?” Pidge looked up from their phone to ask.

“At first I did, but then we started to get into a lot more in depth stuff and it was really fun. Not as fun as I hope Electronics is, though.” Once Hunk mentioned the class, Pidge lit up. They went on and on about how much they expected and that their older brother had taken it. Pidge was into that sort of stuff so when they learned they couldn’t be in the class their freshman year, they were sad about it the whole year.

“At least you guys get to blow stuff up, I’m stuck with probably the most boring classes ever.” Lance complained and Pidge snickered.

“What are you talking about? My A.P. American Literature teacher is literally a robot. He shows no emotion and it’s freaky.” Pidge said and cringed a bit. “Someone threw a paper ball at them and he just kept talking. He didn’t even flinch!”

“Someone threw a paper ball at a teacher in an Advanced Placement class? I thought you guys were supposed to be the good kids?” Lance questioned.

“No, most of us just have massive egos.” Pidge corrected.

“See! You have standards!”

“Having massive egos and standards are not the same thing.”

“I beg to differ.”

“Hey, calm down. You guys like arguing in the cafeteria, or what?” Hunk shut them both up and looked back down to his paper. “What time is it?”

“We have five minutes until the bell rings.” Everyone jumped in their seats, shocked to find Keith standing behind Lance. Then they looked down to see if Lance was alright after falling out of his seat. Lance got up and glared at Keith before sitting back into his seat.

“Oh look it’s the mullet man.” Lance muttered and crossed his arms. Keith seemed offended but then went back to a normal expression.

“I don’t think name calling is the best idea to approach friendship.” Hunk whispered over to Lance and Lance glared back but didn’t say anything back.

The bell rang, leaving everyone to part ways, except for Pidge and Hunk who had the same class. Keith and Lance were going up to the same floor but didn’t say anything to each other. The silence, not that it was silent in the hallway but that no one was currently talking to Lance, brought back the feeling he had been feeling all morning. No more distractions, even if he could pay attention in class. The next time he would most likely be able to would be at lunch, when all three, four if he included the mullet, were together again.

The teacher had decided to put the class to work that day. It was no longer the first day of school so no one had excuses not to do work anymore. They were making timelines of United States History, as that was the class they were in, without any guidance for unknown years. Lance could pick out a few events, just out of prior knowledge. Then the rest was guessing with little context, which wasn’t Lance’s strong suit. It wouldn’t be even if he wasn’t in pain during that time.

After that class was Geometry and sitting next to Keith. It wasn’t eventful, the teacher started on with finding distance. It was simple to follow enough to keep at least a quarter of Lance’s interest. The rest was to sneaking glances at Keith, who seemed to look worried for him. Maybe he was letting it show or maybe Keith was very observant. Either way, Lance was not happy with him.

The teacher finished up the notes and put everyone to work on a worksheet. They only had maybe ten minutes left in class so it was still going to be homework. It was five minutes, the time it took Lance to do one problem, before either of them said anything. But of course it wasn’t Lance who said anything. It was Keith with a simple:

“Are you okay?”

Lance glanced over to see that Keith had put down his pencil and was looking over at Lance. He went back to his work and ignored the mullet, despite that feeling that he was being watched. It was only a minute before he couldn’t take it anymore and dropped his pencil.

“Why are you staring?” Anger seeped into his words as he looked over to Keith. They sat there for a few seconds before anything was said.

“I wanted to make sure you were okay, that’s all.” Keith stared at him a big longer before starting to pack up his stuff. They had only a minute before they would part ways for third period. It took a second for Lance to realize that he probably seemed not fine when he basically blew up in the others face.

“I’m fine, thanks for asking.” He said as calmly as he could while packing up his own stuff. By the time the bell rang, Keith and Lance were both on their own ways. They wouldn’t see each other until fourth period.

Lance tried to pay attention in his science class, he actually tried. But even with the interesting talk of concussions, (was he in sports medicine or something?) there was no way to take his mind of the thing he’s been dealing with all day. Of course, he still was not used to it and probably wouldn’t be until tomorrow. But for now, he wished that he could just play it off.

Fourth period came along and went. His teacher went on the whole period about what each piece of equipment in the weight room did. He also gave them an outline of what each week would be like. But Lance was excited for lunch, in which he hoped he would be distracted long enough to feel better. Once he arrived at their table, Pidge and Hunk were already debating models and that sort of stuff.

“I’m telling you seventeen was clearly the best because out of all of them, it had the best technology on board!”

“Yeah, eight through seventeen all had the same rocket. Therefore, they should rank the same. What about one or seven?”

“What are you two even talking about?” Lance asked curiously making Hunk and Pidge finally realize that he was there, and that Keith was too. They both stopped in their debate to start eating their lunch.

“We were talking about the Apollo Missions.” Pidge stated and ate another one of their fries.

“Who said they were even real?” Keith asked suddenly, scaring Lance.

“El Diós! How did you just get there?” Lance grabbed his shirt where his heart was dramatically.

“You can speak Spanish?” Keith asked, eating part of his pizza.

“What kind of question is that?” Lance looked over just to find Keith shrugging. Now that Keith had heard him speak Spanish, he could notice the slight accent in his voice. He wondered if they would pick up the same thing if he spoke Korean. Or maybe he just sounded like he was from Texas, which was true.

“Anyways, I’m so excited about Electronics, you don’t even know!” Pidge grinned brightly as Hunk and Lance groaned.

“Oh we know.” Lance complained and looked over to them. “You didn’t talk about it at all for the last year and a half.” He started to make a voice that mocked Pidge’s voice. “Oh my goodness, I want to take electronics so bad! I want to build robots and battle other robots but secretly take the world over with my robot.”

Pidge threw their fist down on the table. “That does not sound like me!”

“From what I know of you, it sounds like you.” Keith added in only to get a glare from Pidge.

“For once in my life I’m going to agree with the mullet!” Lance yelled which in turn made Hunk laugh.

“I’m pretty sure you two are more alike than you’d like to think.” Hunk added in and both Keith and Lance glared at each other before looking away in disgust.

“There is no way I’m even like him!” Keith argued. “I even tried being nice to him earlier and he snapped at me.”

That statement brought Lance back to the ache that had plagued him all day. Also of the fact that Keith had noticed this meaning Lance probably wasn’t the best at hiding it. It would have made sense to ask after he had snapped but he also asked before. That meant Keith probably knew something he didn’t, and that bothered Lance.

Pidge was just about sprinting into the Electronics class. After the bell rang, signaling to the students that lunch, or their fourth period, was over, Pidge was dragging everyone else down the hallways. When they had actually gotten there, Pidge couldn’t stop moving in their seat while the other three were desperately trying to catch their breath. At least Lance could distract himself here, seeing as their teacher was so spontaneous.

Today, they started the work on the said robots Pidge was so excited for. They were learning about basic planning and were each given their own blueprint. Exciting, right? Not if you were either Lance or Keith, whose dreams were crushed once they were told it would be in partners. It also happened to be that Lance and Keith were partners and that Pidge and Hunk demanded not to be separated. Even with the encouragement of their teacher, they were not able to get any work done by the end of class.

Sixth period was only worse for Lance, seeming that Pidge’s talk of their language arts teacher being a robot made Lance realize that was the case here. Their teacher did seem to have feelings, as they did react to things the students would say. But on the other side, they droned on about subjects and the importance of reading. It went over Lance’s head, seeing that he’s been in the school library not even five times.

Lance once again waited for the bus after classes were done. He tried to be a part of his sibling’s conversation but there was nothing for him to do about the pit that was now growing in him. They were able to fully walk home today, without his older sister happening to drive by. He distanced himself from his brother and sister, walking a bit slower than their pace. He couldn’t be distracted from the pain, only to find it fueled when he had tried to speak.

He was able to get out of some chores by the geometry and language arts homework he was assigned. He also sat at his desk staring at the papers for twenty minutes before being able to get any work done. That led to him scrolling through various social media, and eventually getting a follow request on Instagram from one Keith Kogane. This came with a quick profile check only to find one picture, one of Keith and a guy in a police uniform smiling in the background. The picture was captioned, “Just met up with Shiro for the first time!” It was posted a week ago.

After that, Lance put his phone down and decided to actually look at his homework. If he didn’t get to work his mother would eventually come in and find him not working. If that happened, he’d be tasked with the worst of chores and doomed to spend at least a month doing all his homework at the dining table. He had learned of this the hard way, spending two hours on his new phone at the time instead of homework.

It took him at least an hour to finally figure out his language arts homework. On top of that, there was the thirty minutes he had used to do his geometry homework, it made sense because he actually payed enough attention to take notes. By the time he was done, he was luckily greeted by pizza from his oldest sister, Noemi. Sadly, it was a cold pizza, supposedly being put out an hour ago but Lance never came down to get any.

After eating, he went downstairs just to sneak his plate into the sink and run back upstairs. His mother didn’t seem to notice him, luckily, but Ester did. Without him noticing, she followed him back upstairs. He only noticed when she closed his door behind them. He acknowledged her and slumped into his desk chair. She sat on his bed gently, grimacing a bit at how messy it was.

“Did something happen at school?” She asked, picking at something on the hem of her skirt. “You seem off.”

“It’s just like you’d expect school to be.” Lance answered simply, spinning his chair slowly. He stopped once she pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket.

“I found this in the attic, something about our family being cursed. Have you ever he-“

“Don’t do it.”

“You performed it, didn’t you?” Lance looked away from her and straightened himself in his chair. “I’m going to take that as a yes.” She put it on the bed. “What did it do?”

“If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.”

“Does it have to do something with those nights you disappear?” Lance got up and walked over, attempting to grab the paper from the bed beside her. She reached for it before he did though and held it to her chest with Lance hovering over her, still staring at the place it used to be. “I started keeping track of the days you seem off, like this. They lead up to the night you are gone every time. Then it’s a full moon when you are gone. It worries me.”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“If I performed this, I would, wouldn’t I? What’s keeping me from doing so?” She asked and he seemed hurt.

“For the love of God, do not do what that paper says.” His hand landed on the blanket and he gripped it tightly.

“Then explain everything.” She said softly and looked into his eyes. “No matter how bizarre it seems, if you explain it to me, I’ll be able to understand. If not, this is the only other answer.”

Lance’s world seemed to be chipping away in parts he’d rather stay hidden. In the two years he’s dealt with this, he never expected to be confronted like this. But on the other hand, he could have seen it coming. She was the only one who asked questions and she was determined to figure it out. Whether knowing helped or made it worse, she wouldn’t know until she knew. But Lance was stuck in a corner. If he refused to say anything, she’d follow the steps listed on the paper. But if he did, she’d think he wasn’t telling the truth and do it anyway. On the slight chance she believed him, she’d pity him.

“Are you okay?” He heard those words for the second time today. But this time, he had realized where it had come from. She was now wiping tears from his face. “I’m prying, I know, but I only want to help.”

“Maybe knowing is only going to make it worse.” His voice cracked, even as quietly as he spoke.


	4. 03

Keith woke up only to be scared of his own ceiling. It took him a second to realize that it, indeed, was his own ceiling. A week ago, it wouldn’t have been his ceiling. But the boxes that scattered the room did confirm that it was his room too. He got out of bed, touching the cold floor lightly, letting himself adjust to the temperature before moving. He got dressed and then to the kitchen to find food before he had to go to school.

Shiro greeted him and went back to cooking whatever he was making. Keith wouldn’t be surprised if it was an omelet as the whole room spelled of cooking egg. Meanwhile, Keith was pulling down a box of cereal. When he had first moved in, there was none but Shiro was glad to buy some for him. Even if Shiro didn’t like it, Keith certainly did.

“Are you finally going to ride the bus?” Shiro asked as Keith was pouring his soy milk into his bowl.

“I don’t know.” Keith put it simple because he truly didn’t know. He was undecided. On one side, he’d get drove in a car with Shiro which usually led to awkward silence and some really bad pop song on the radio. On the other side, he might know someone on the bus but at the same time he might not know anyone.

“There’s a nice family down the road, a few houses down. One of the first of them to have a plantation type home, they have some kids that attend your school. You would be able to ride with them.” Socializing was not Keith’s strong suit.

“Sure.” No.

“I can call over, if you want to walk to their house and then walk to the bus stop with them.” Shiro suggested, then seeing the uncomfortable side of Keith in this situation. “If you don’t like them, at least you know where the bus stop is.”

“I guess?” His answer twisted into a question which became regret once Shiro pulled out his phone. “It’s six-thirty, are you sure they’ll be up?”

“Oh they’ll be up.” Keith stopped talking after that as Shiro was now on the phone. He couldn’t hear the other side but instead started to put together his school stuff. After his homework was done last night, he never put it away. Instead, it was spread across his desk.

Keith got back downstairs and put his backpack next to the door. Shiro nodded to him despite still being on the phone, only noticing him for a second before going back to the conversation. Keith went back upstairs long enough to put some shoes on and a jacket on.

“They’re just down the road to the right, house 11506. It’s got a Spanish feel to it.” He said to Keith and he made a mental note of it. Keith just stood there. “Well go on, better not keep anyone waiting.”

Keith walked, walked, and walked some more. By a few houses down, Shiro had meant a lot. At least it seemed like a lot, as the farther away from town you got, the bigger the plots of land got. Giant fields of wheat just almost ready to harvest seemed to go on for miles, except when he reached a way smaller (still big, but mostly just fields of grass) plot of land. A few trees surrounded the front side of the house, but just not enough to reveal the house behind it. The mailbox outside was labeled ‘McClain 11506.’

As Keith moved up the wide driveway, the Spanish feel that Shiro talked about was relevant. Three cars were lined in the driveway. The garage was wide open with another car with its hood open. A dirty rag hung awkwardly on the handle of a giant tool chest. The architecture itself was similar to Spanish design. A place that lined the pathways seemed to have used to be a garden but has long been smashed down. A semi-cylinder wall gave way to what seemed like the front door. But all of it together seemed like a home, something Keith had never properly felt.

“Are you Shiro’s kid?” Keith’s skin seemed to jump away from his body for a second as he turned to face the man now standing in the garage. He was wearing the typical car mechanic type outfit, the white tank top with overalls, boots to match. Keith was intimidated to say the least and nodded a little bit. “Come on in.” He started to walk towards the back of the garage. Keith hesitated but followed. He was stopped at the door. “Take your shoes off or Elvira will not be happy.” He obeyed.

Once inside, Keith was greeted with yelling, most likely Spanish, from a woman in the kitchen. After she was finished, Spanish flew from someone upstairs, a voice of a boy that seemed familiar. It grew louder with pounding of shoes running down the wooden stairs. Most of the floor seemed wooden but changed into carpet in the family room, into tiling in the kitchen, and into the cement he just walked on in the garage. The door behind the semi-cylindrical walls was right next to the kitchen and seemed a bit bigger now that he could fully see it.

“Excuse me?” Keith stopped looking around to look at the woman who was standing in the kitchen. She was staring right at Keith and her voice had a thick accent to it. “Are you Shiro’s boy?” He nodded but she didn’t seem to take that as an answer.

“Yes.” He answered simply and she smiled. She put down the knife she was holding and walked over to him.

“Here, come, sit. Make yourself comfortable while you are here.” She took him over into the family room and has him take a seat on a rather large couch. “Only three of the kids are in high school right now. I’ve seen them around somewhere.” She smiled and patted his shoulder before walking back into the kitchen. She spewed out another yell in Spanish, making Keith gain chills. She seemed like a good mother, a loving one unless you got on her bad side.

“Mamá, no need to yell, the boys are still upstairs. They are almost ready.” A young girl emerged from the stairs and put her backpack against the island in the kitchen. “You know Ramiro and his obsession with impressing girls. Then Lance is not even a bit better. I wanted to take a shower this morning but they were just sitting there in the bathroom. They were taking turns in the mirror to practice pickup lines!” She threw herself onto the table and sighed, turning her head to see Keith. She perked her head up and looked to the older woman, who Keith now thought was her mother.

“He’s Shiro’s boy, the one I warned your brothers about.” The woman said, not looking up from the many things she was cutting. Keith waved a little and gave a small smile. She returned the offer and got out of her seat. She seemed to have wanted to walk over there but the commotion from upstairs stopped her.

Running down the stairs came two boys, seeming to be racing each other down. At the last step, the one in the front was pushed to the floor and the one in the back threw his hands up in victory. The one on the floor got up and looked at where the other one was standing only to look eyes with Keith. “Keith?”

“Lance.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I told you before, he’s Shiro’s kid. But it seems the two of you have met.” His mother said, without even looking up from the cutting board again.

“Yeah, I’d recognize that mullet anywhere.”

“Well, why don’t you get off the ground and get to school. Do you even want a job?” Another person had joined them, standing in the doorway to the stairs. Lance finally got off the ground and grabbed his backpack from the position it had been thrown to when he was pushed.

“Thanks, Noemi, but I can be out of school for one day and still graduate.” Lance countered and grabbed something from one of the cupboards. “But I’m here, when are we going to hell?” His language was responded with a whip of a rag from his mother.

They left only a few moments later. Ramiro and Ester, as she introduced herself, walked ahead of Keith and Lance. They were having a typical conversation while tension hung in the air behind them. The closest they got to a conversation was the eyeing. One of them would look at the other and either gets caught and immediately looks away or look away on their own. When a conversation finally started up, more tension filled the air.

“Shiro’s been around here for a couple of years and talked about adopting a kid. So you’re that kid, huh?” It was Lance that started the conversation.

“Yes.” Keith answered simply.

“So are you a runaway or are your parents’ dead or what?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” They stayed silent for another minute before Lance seemed to try again.

“So, seen any girls you’re interested in?” Lance moved his arms to the back of his head.

Keith hesitated. “No.”

“Oh come on, there’s got to be some girl you like.”

“I’m not really interested in romantic relationships.” Keith lied. It wasn’t that but how Lance had phrased the question with girls. Truth was Keith was into guys. But, at the same time, he was afraid to tell anyone because of those stories of kids coming out and being shamed. If someone found out, it would spread like wildfire and he’d get harassed. At least his lie shut Lance up.

When they arrived at the bus stop, the awkward silence clung to the air yet again, leaving the two of them only to listen in on Ester and Ramiro’s conversation. On the bus, Keith sat near the front while Lance joined his siblings near the back. As the bus rode along the route, the bus became more packed. Eventually someone sat next to Keith to talk to their friends that had sat across the aisle.

They arrived at school around the time Shiro would have dropped him off. He got off and started to walk to the cafeteria to join Hunk and Pidge at a table. Lance caught up to him at some point but didn’t say a word to him. Keith noticed that Lance seemed to have something bugging him, but it wasn’t as strong of a feeling as it was yesterday. Though, at the same time he seemed worried.

Pidge and Hunk were sitting in silence when they arrived to the table that they had stationed themselves at. They were both working on homework but by the setup of each page, it was for different classes. Of course, when Hunk turned the page, they were now obviously working on the same homework. Math equations were flooding each of their pages.

“What did you get for number thirteen? I can’t seem to get an even number.” Hunk asked without even looking up from his page.

“Didn’t you pay attention in class yesterday? She blatantly said that number thirteen wasn’t an even number.” Pidge responded quickly, not even stopping her own work. Hunk gave a small ‘oh’ before Pidge continued. “I thought you said you had it last night when I explained it to you.”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t mean I listened to one specific line she had said about one question.” Hunk responded and continued on with his work. Neither of the two working had noticed Keith and Lance sitting across from them. It stayed that way until the bell rang and everyone started to pack up to go their ways. Lance walked ahead of Keith, unlike yesterday when they walked up to the same floor together.

Keith got to his class and sat down in his seat. He was placed in the exact seat in the middle of all of the seats. No one else probably noticed it but he did and it made him uncomfortable. He was surrounded by people on every side of him. But it didn’t bug him once the lesson started. He paid attention as his teacher taught them about concussions.

He finally made it to Geometry on time. He could finally remember where it was and what route to take to get there fast. Turns out, taking the main staircase is not the best idea during the passing time because that’s where everyone goes. But even with taking the side staircase and knowing where to be when, Lance had still beat him there. When Keith had sat down, Lance didn’t say anything, like he really didn’t like Keith. Well, Keith already knew this fact but it had been worse ever since this morning.

Geometry went on with a review page. Even with it being the first week of the school year, they were taking a test tomorrow. It wasn’t that bad at least, it was only on the distance equation. But even with that, the pacing was quicker than Keith was used too. When he was back in Texas, they’d maybe take one test a month but at the same time, ninety percent of the students weren’t meeting standard. So in the end, they slowed down things drastically to make sure students understood.

Half way through the assignment time (Keith had finished and turned it in for extra points at this point) he could tell that Lance was frustrated. Just yesterday it had made some sense to him but now all that knowledge seemed to be gone. Keith wanted to help his friend, though he wasn’t sure what to call him if not friend, but in the process would probably get yelled at by said quote-on-quote friend. Instead, he gave him concerned glances every minute or so.

“What are you looking at?” Lance had not yelled but he seemed annoyed as he had dropped his pencil quickly and looked over to Keith. Keith was surprised. “Well, go on.”

“You seem troubled.” Keith kept it simple, a normal part of his nature. “And also you’ve been on problem two for fifteen minutes.”

“So you’re worried about me because I can’t do a math problem?”

“Well it’s not just that.”

“Why are you so worried about me? This happened yesterday, too. We aren’t even friends.” Lance’s words struck Keith right in the heart. He had only been in this school for three days and someone already hated his guts. But at the same time, somewhere in Keith knew Lance didn’t mean it, and that it had just been his temper talking.

“Pidge, Hunk and you are the closest people I have to friends but apparently not.” Lance took a few seconds to realize what he had said and what Keith had said in return. His words worried Lance about his own condition but left him too speechless to respond. His face turned from anger to sadness and he went back to his work. Soon enough, they were parting ways to go to separate classes.

Even with Keith’s nature to pay attention in class, Lance’s words took him to a whole other reality. He missed all the notes to think if Lance really didn’t like him. Pidge and Hunk seemed to like him but what if they were also faking it. Or maybe Pidge and Hunk did like him and Lance felt as if he wasn’t being included anymore.

During fourth period, Keith only glanced at Lance a few times, as if to find something to tell him the answer. But as he expected, Lance just seemed focused on the workout that day. Lance didn’t even look at him. At lunch, Keith looked at the table the three of them were sitting at but even from where he was standing, he didn’t feel welcome. He ended up sitting next to one of the windows looking to the baseball field.

At Electronics, he was questioned by Pidge and Hunk when they got there. He lied, of course, saying he had some assignment to finish so he was in a classroom during lunch. They seemed to buy it and he looked like he was in the clear. That is, he was until their teacher told them to get into their groups to work on the project. His partner was Lance.

They got their blueprint and they both just stared at it. Neither of them talked nor wrote or draw anything. Pidge and Hunk seemed distracted with various papers flooding their table while Keith and Lance’s desk was deserted. Their teacher came by, giving his mustache a stroke, and talked to them about teamwork. That at least got someone to talk once he left.

“Do you hate me?” Those were the last words Keith expected to come out of Lance’s mouth. “Do you hate me?”

“I don’t know.” There was a pause before Keith spoke again. “Do you hate me?”

“No.” Lance’s answer confused Keith even more than he was this morning. “I’m just having a hard time finding the words to say.”

“Just start somewhere.”

“I’m not the best around this time of the month and sometimes that leads into me not having control over my words sometimes.” He took it slow, finding the words as they came. “I didn’t mean what I said earlier. Then you weren’t there during lunch and I was really worried.”

Lance stopped saying things and looked down at the blueprint. “I could tell something was wrong and I was worried. I thought you hated me so I felt unwelcomed at lunch.”

“Sorry about that, it was probably my fault.” Lance apologized and drew lines back and forth on the paper.

“The angst on the other side of the table is killing me.” Pidge fell back into their seat, pretending to die dramatically. “Revive me with memes in six hundred, sixty-six days.”

Keith and Lance hesitated before they both broke out into laughter. Hunk and Pidge joined in with them which made Keith glance down to their paper. They were done planning out their entire design and already had lists and lists of materials and steps to make it. Meanwhile their page was merely scribbles. Keith would have made an attempt to start but the bell rung. They all quickly packed up and made off their own ways.

“We should hang out sometime to catch up.” Keith suggested.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.” Lance said as he put his backpack on in the middle of the hallway as they walked.

“What about tomorrow? Then we can get some work done in class.”

“Tomorrow is a no-go.” Lance seemed worried but scared when he said that. Keith was too scared to ask. “Does tonight work?”

“Are we doing it at my house or your house?”

“Do you want to deal with my family?”

“Do you want to deal with the silence until Shiro gets home?”

“Touché, my house works if you want to deal with the noise.” Lance said as they entered their next classroom. “I’ll warn you now that my mom is going to have you stay for dinner, no doubt.”

“As long as Shiro knew I was there, he most likely wouldn’t mind. He seemed so okay with you guys he sent me to walk there alone at seven in the morning.”

Sixth period was a blur of information that spat out of their teacher. The bus ride was not a bit better. The siblings were all having a conversation and Keith tried to understand but they talked so randomly but seemed to understand each other perfectly. When they had made it to the bus stop, Lance seemed to drop out of the conversation and he walked faster than the other two. Keith kept up.

They arrived and were greeted by Lance’s mom, which he finally learned her name was Elvira. Lance explained why Keith was here quickly and retreated upstairs. A small child poked out of a door and said something in Spanish to Lance. He stopped and talked back to her and she smiled, giggling as she ran downstairs. Whatever he said made her happy.

Lance walked into another room, just down the hallway from the room the girl was in. He dropped his stuff near the desk and sat in the chair. “Go ahead and put your stuff anywhere.” Keith guessed that this was Lance’s room.

They worked on it for two hours. They only knew that once Lance had smelled the dinner cooking downstairs. From that point until they got downstairs, Lance was jumpy, ready for whatever food his mother was about to serve. He had practically run down the stairs and then got scolded by his mother in Spanish. The table was set like a cliché family dinner would be set up.

Keith wasn’t sure what was served but he still enjoyed it. He admired that Elvira worked so hard to make food for the giant family she ruled over. Lance mentioned that his grandmother was not present for dinner. But even with the missing person, which Keith now felt he was sort of replacing for this one night, it was still a bigger table then he’s ever seen. In reality, it wasn’t one table but three pushed together.

Occasionally questions came up, asking Keith various things about himself. Lance seemed to learn a lot, especially when he had mentioned being Korean. It didn’t feel like an interrogation at all in the end. It was truly more like he was a significant other that someone brought home for the holidays. Not that he was anyone’s significant other at the table.

After dinner, Keith packed up his backpack from papers for the project being spread around everywhere. It was still daylight out, only being six o’clock in August. Lance insisted on walked Keith home even so. For the first few minutes it was quiet.

“You’re right. Your family is all over the place.” Keith said suddenly, smiling as they walked along the road.

“I never said that. I said that they can be loud.”

“It’s the same thing.” Silence came after that statement.

“So you’re Korean?”

“Yes.”

“Does that mean you can speak Korean or did the whole adoption thing interfere?”

“My dad taught me apparently. But after they died, I kind of shut all of my memories with them, or so the doctors told me. Even after all that, I still remembered Korean.”

Lance was taken aback. Only this morning Keith didn’t want to talk about his family but now he was admitting to them being gone from his life. Death wasn’t something you could reverse (By normal means, knowing the world that Lance lives in where things like him existed) and if he was young enough, he just shut out that part completely. It was truly sad.

“Can you say something?” He spoke but Keith had apparently drifted off. “Can you say something in Korean?”

“I said I could speak it, not that I was comfortable speaking it in front of people.” Keith said calmly and kicked some of the gravel below his feet.

“I could understand that. I never have experienced that feeling though. My mom and grandmother had all of us learn Spanish before English. We mostly speak Spanish at home.”

“Well, Shiro only knows English so I can’t really experience that either.” Keith explained. “I probably did with my dad. It probably drove my mother insane.”

“Yeah, it’s like those Mexican girls who talk behind others backs in Spanish. It kills people not knowing who or what they are talking about. Two or three times last year, girls would come up to me after learning I knew Spanish and ask to translate for them.”

“Isn’t that what taking Spanish is for?”

“I tested out of that credit.”

“You can test out of a graduation credit?”

“Yeah, you just have to be able to fluently speak, write, and read a language. It’s pretty easy if you know what to say. You could probably do it too. They just bring in someone who can speak Korean and they test you.”

“That sounds pretty simple.”

“It really is.”

They now stood in front of the driveway to Keith’s house. No car was to be found, meaning Shiro was still at work. It wasn’t surprising. He wasn’t home until six or seven. Keith had learned this before he rode the bus, he’d have to wait at his desk at the office until they went home. Keith dung into his pocket and sighed in relief that he had his key.

Lance walked with him up to the door. Once Keith got the door open, he had to struggle with the key and lock to figure out which way it went, he looked back over to Lance. “Thanks for dinner.”

“It was no problem. My mom doesn’t care if there are one or a hundred other mouths to feed. She loves cooking.” Lance responded and Keith smiled a bit. “I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Lance turned around and started walking down the driveway. He held up his hand to wave goodbye making Keith do it in return but then he realized that Lance couldn’t see it. Keith watched him until he made it onto the road before going inside.


	5. 04

Pidge was not in the best position. They never were from the moment they woke up to the time they finally fell asleep. That said they were also up for over 48 hours, living on coffee as they didn’t have enough to make a potion to have their body asleep but their mind awake. After getting a normal amount of sleep, they then spent the whole time learning that their friends were not who they thought they were. First, there was the party.

Pidge was happy. Their brother had just graduated and was accepted into the town’s police force. Friday night, the day of his arrival home, there was a whole party planned. Their parents were last minute planners, using indiscreet magic to do most of the work. A lot of the stuff was cooking, cleaning, and making the house seem bigger to fit for all the guests. The invitations were already sent out and all Pidge was left to do was wait.

Good family friends were coming, people like other police officers, like Matt’s good friend from high school who graduated a year before him, Shiro, Lance’s family, and Hunk’s family. On the other hand, other people that Pidge did not like were also coming, for example, all the people who didn’t know that they went by them now and keep mistaking their gender. This came with the multiple cringes that Pidge would give people behind their backs.

School went without a hitch earlier that day. It was one of the seemingly random days that Lance seemed off. Hunk and they went crazy over their robot project in Electronics and Keith just seemed like Keith, really. What really pissed them off was the fact that the principal happened to be good friends with their mom and made it very clear that she was coming. Hell, even the electronics teacher was invited because the party was for Matt.

Those facts made Pidge happy that their friends, except Keith, were coming. But it also seemed as if connections were in Pidge’s favor, seeing that the person that Shiro adopted happened to be Keith. In the living room, Matt and Shiro were going on and on about what had happened during the time they were separated. This would still probably be happening even if they hadn’t lost connection. Meanwhile Pidge and Keith were both sitting in Pidge’s room without saying anything. Hunk was the next to come and at least started a conversation with the two.

“Oh man, I’m surprised Lance isn’t in here yet.” Hunk said as he came in, taking a seat on the bed next to Keith. “Everyone else in his family is here.”

“He could be eating.” Pidge asked, scrolling through their phone.

“No way, I would have seen him when I was eating.” Hunk debunked the idea and Pidge began to be a bit concerned.

“Unless he got stuck in a conversation, he should be here. He knows where my room is. We hide in here every single time my parents have a party.” Pidge sat up and put their phone down.

Keith looked up and towards the door as if he was hoping Lance to just come in at that moment. Instead he was met with a familiar pair of eyes. They weren’t Lance’s but they were the ones carried in his family. It only took whoever it was a second before moving away from the door. Pidge seemed to have noticed too and went after them. Hunk and Keith followed behind shortly after Pidge didn’t come back. They opened the door to find Pidge dragging a girl into the room. Hunk locked it behind them.

“Hey Ester, how’s your night been?” It was who Keith thought it was, but the name was nowhere close for him to remember. Meanwhile Pidge seemed very keen on interrogating her. “Where’s Lance?”

She hesitated before answering. “He’s out there, flirting with some girls.” Hunk seemed to buy it but both Pidge and Keith were not.

“He knows every girl at this party. He’s tried with every single one and has learned his lesson.” Pidge argued, crossing their arms. “Now, I’m going to ask you again. Where is Lance?”

“I’ve already told you that he’s out getting food!”

“Is he getting food or flirting with girls. Stop changing the story. You’re a terrible liar.” Pidge continued on without hesitation after she spoke.

“Look, he’s out there. So if you could just let me get back to the crowd-“

“Where is Lance?”

“He’s out there.”

“Stop lying to us.”

“I think we should let her go, we aren’t getting anywhere.” Hunk added in but Pidge shushed him quickly.

“By ‘out there’ she could be not here.” Keith proposed and Ester frowned a bit before regaining her posture.

“Where is he?” Pidge continued on with their investigation. “We’ll let you out once you tell us.”

“What’s it matter to you where he is? You don’t even know why he isn’t here.” Ester glared at everyone before realizing what she had said. She covered her mouth as her eyes widened. “I didn’t mean to say that.”

“Why isn’t he here?” Pidge asked curiously and took a step towards Ester. Ester kept taking steps back and soon enough Pidge had her cornered.

“You wouldn’t believe me.” Ester said, pressed firmly against the wall. She looked between Pidge and the two by the door.

“Try to explain.”

“He wouldn’t be okay with me telling any of you.”

“Stop making excuses.”

Ester looked between the two and Pidge again before taking a deep breath. They deeply cared for her brother and even before this, she was worried about him. He had told her vaguely of what would happen tonight but wouldn’t dare go into detail. She had covered for him earlier so he wouldn’t be dragged to the party. She could tell how much pain he had while he held this in for so long. But if she did tell his friends, he’d never forgive her. In the end, they’d help his emotional state but their sibling relationship would be crushed.

“It’s a long story.”

~

Lance smiled as he heard his whole family driving off but then frowned again. He leaned against the wall and fell down to the floor. There was an ache throughout his whole body and whatever he did caused him to be out of breath. His stomach was rumbling beyond control but there was no way he could hold anything down. He had learned that fact the hard way a long time ago. He barely had enough energy to pull himself back off the floor.

He headed back upstairs, taking a break every few steps to catch his breath. When he reached the top, he headed down the hall to reach his room. Underneath his bed was his duffel bag from Little League, all baseball things absent. He put a change of clothes inside the bag and then cursed at himself. He went back downstairs to get two bottles of water and went back upstairs. He closed the back and went into the bathroom, starting the shower. Taking his clothes off immediately, he jumped in and sat down in the middle of the water. It was still freezing cold.

His phone buzzed loudly against his ears, making him cringe. It wasn’t a phone call more of texts in quick succession. It went on for a long time before he finally found the energy to get up. He turned the shower off and grabbed a towel from the rack. For a while, everyone in his family had a certain towel but it stopped being a thing when his grandfather died. He wrapped it around his waist and checked the tag. It was originally Yessica’s, his youngest sister. Talking about sisters, it was Ester who was continuing to spam his phone with messages.

8:42 E: Lance!

8:42 E: LANCE!!!!!

8:43 E: YOU NEED TO GET OUT NOW

8:43 E: IT’S HARD TO EXPLAIN OVER TEXT BUT PIDGE HUNK AND KEITH ARE COMING

8:43 E: I HAD TO EXPLAIN SOME STUFF BUT THEY’RE COMING

8:43 E: WE ARE ON HEATHERS ROAD NOW

8:43 E: LANCE

8:43 E: ANSWER ME PLEASE

8:43 E: WE ARE TURNING INTO THE DRIVEWAY

8:43 E: STOP READING MY MESSAGES AND GO!!!!!

A squeaking noise, like that of nails on a chalkboard, filled Lance’s ears suddenly, making him jump. He covered his ears and looked out to find that Ester’s car was now in the driveway. He looked back to his phone and that Ester had stopped texting back, also that he had around fifteen minutes until moonrise. When he looked back, Ester was getting out of the passenger’s seat, meaning she didn’t drive. She looked up around the house’s windows and met eyes with him. She was worried and Lance looked to the other people. Hunk and Pidge had also noticed him and Keith was coming out of the driver’s seat.

Lance backed away from the window suddenly, running into the sink and falling over, pulling down a lot of the stuff that was on it. He got up as quickly as he could and put on his clothes without even thinking of drying himself off. He ran out of the room, slipping on the water but barely catching himself using his hands. Being out of breath couldn’t dare stop him right now. He grabbed the bag from his bed, not sparing any time as he raced down the stairs. He slowed down, hearing their voices just outside the front door. From what he could make out, Ester was trying to buy him time.

He took the opportunity that Ester was creating for him and ran through the living room to the laundry room. He slipped on his older tennis shoes and ran out the back door. He didn’t even look back, which was probably a bad sign, and approached the forest line. He was stopped as someone pulled against his left arm. He looked back and pulled away as he stopped. He stared at the boy, Keith, in front of him.

“I need to be going.” Lance said and tried to go off again but Keith stopped him again.

“I get it that you didn’t tell me, I’m the new kid and we don’t really know each other. But god fucking damn it Lance, you grew up with Hunk and Pidge. They are the closest someone has seemed to get to you!”

“Keith this really isn’t the time.”

“No, it’s the best time!” Keith took a deep breath. “You weren’t in the car ride here! Pidge and Hunk were worried, not worried, out right scared that they meant nothing to you!”

“I couldn’t tell them! I never knew how they would treat me!”

“They would have understood! We all do right now! Ester even told us it took you two years to tell anyone! Meanwhile Hunk and Pidge have been dealing with their own shit in this world!” Lance’s eyes were brimming with tears and so were Keith’s. “There are people who care about you in this world!”

“I think you’re not looking at the facts or my side to this! I wasn’t scared, I was terrified!”

“And how long is two years for you?”

Lance hesitated before answering. “Twenty-seven,” He paused and Keith gave him a questioning look. “Twenty-seven shifts.”

“What do you mean?”

“You asked me how long two years is for me. The answer is twenty-seven shifts, about to be twenty-eight.” Lance answered slowly. The anger between them seemed to have faded. “Don’t you think I’d think about telling someone, at least someone, about this but then I’d be reminded again that I’m not like any of them?” A single tear fell down Lance’s cheek.

“Lance.”

“No, save it please.” Lance cut him off quickly. A silence came across them for a short second before Lance reached out for his shoulder, grunting in pain. Keith reached out for him but Lance backed away. “I need to get going.”

Lance backed away a step, looking up to Keith seeming to wait for his approval to leave. Keith nodded and Lance took off without another word. He stood there for only a few more moments until he went back to the front of the house, surprised that no one had followed him out there. Ester offered everyone food seeming that no one wanted to go back to the party at Pidge’s house. They made sandwiches and ate in silence. The silence kept everyone in their own thoughts.

Keith couldn’t stop thinking about what Lance was saying back to him. Maybe Keith was being too one sided about it, just like Lance had said. If he put himself in Lance’s shoes, hell he would probably be more terrified than Lance was. It would haunt him day and night without an end to sight. That was probably what Lance felt as well. It took him so long to admit anything to anyone and by the sounds of how Ester described the situation it was forced out of him.

“So,” Hunk held out the word through the silence. Everyone looked up from their sandwiches. “How’s it like with magic, Pidge?”

“Good, how about those ghosts?”

Hunk nodded afterwards. The silence returned after the end of the attempted conversation. No one seemed to want to say anything even if it wasn’t about the magical world they all basically learned about, talking about Keith and Ester. Pidge grew up knowing these things and Hunk only knew to the extent of his condition, as he put it.

“So do you have a wand or is it something else?” Ester was the one to start the conversation this time. Pidge lifted up their shirt and pulled something out of a container. Ester went to investigate it but Pidge stopped her.

“You shouldn’t touch it. It’s like Harry Potter and that the wand chooses the owner, kind of. But, the wand can only be touched by that person or else the other person who tries is seriously burned. But also at the same time, you can also get burned if you aren’t a magic user.”

“So is it wizard, witch, warlock, what?”

“Those are all just labels, really. You can go by what field of magic you specialize in but it’s just generally magic user.” Pidge explained and they picked up the wand again. Hunk’s phone started to ring and he stepped out of the room.

~

Shiro continued to drive down the road. It was dark already, maybe an hour after sundown. Keith was at another residence with a few friends, two of which were Hunk and Pidge. Matt was in the car with him, offering to help him take the two back home from the McClain’s home. Maybe it was something Matt had picked up in college or he had just noticed it, but Matt seemed very cautious as they drove down the road.

A loud noise caught them off guard and Shiro slowed down a bit. It was something in the grass to the side of them, probably just a stray animal. Shiro sped back up to the speed limit and went on, not as shocked when they heard it again. The next few moments were hard to process for Shiro but Matt seemed to be able to see it all in slow motion.

An animal came from the foggy grass, larger than anything he’s probably seen. It was jumping onto the car from the passenger side. Matt seemed to have seen this coming, as he was pulling some stick out of a container at his hips. He pointed it at the creature and muttered words under his breath that Shiro couldn’t make out but Matt was no longer in his seat. Instead he was falling over, trying to match a certain angle up with the creature in front of them. A burst of light came from the tip of the stick and symbols appeared before them. The creature flew off from its path into the windshield and down onto the street below.

“Are you okay?” Matt asked as he looked up to Shiro from his lap. Shiro nodded but Matt could tell that he was confused. He sat up and opened his door, stepping one foot onto the ground. The creature’s unnatural glowing yellow eyes seemed to show fear in itself and it ran off without another thought. Matt knew that it was no ordinary creature, especially on a full moon like this. Who it was, he might never know the answer to that question.

“What just happened?” Shiro asked and Matt got back into the car. He closed his door and put the stick back into the container.

“I’ll explain later, just keep driving.” So Shiro did, trusting that his friend would tell him and that the delay was only to figure out how to tell him. He was like Shiro in that way as Shiro did that to him before. It was quiet the rest of the ride to the McClain residence except for the radio. It was playing some old, cheesy love song, only ending when they pulled into the driveway.


	6. 05

Lance had no idea where he had woken up. This was typical for him but after a while he started to notice little things about certain areas. But this time, this time he was lost for sure. It wasn’t even better that when he woke up his brain still wasn’t working right. He hated the winter months but at least the cold woke him up in the morning. There was a giant ache in his back, probably a bruise forming from who knows what.

He lied there for a few more minutes, trying to bring together thoughts into complete ones. When he attempted to get up, his stomach did not agree with him and spilled out any contents that his body tried to digest last night. He closed his eyes, trying to avoid it as he got up. He didn’t want to look what he had ripped to shreds uncontrollably the night before. The first time he shifted, he had made that mistake and found the severed head of a rabbit.

He almost fell back over, not used to standing on his own two feet. He leaned up against a tree, sliding down a bit but catching himself before he scrapped his back up too badly. He stayed there to catch his breath and to close his eyes. When he opened them again, his sight wasn’t as blurry as it once was. He stumbled forward towards the next tree, trying to get away from the not so pleasant smell of something that came from his insides before he threw up again.

Lance reached the edge of the forest slowly. His thought had finally formed into actual thoughts and not scrambles in his head. He couldn’t tell where he was in relation to anything. Except for the line of trees just behind it, it was all wheat fields as far as he could see. Is he squinted, he could see the road far ahead of him.

The morning wind came quickly, making Lance once again realize his lack of clothing. He backed up, back into the leaves of the tree. He grunted, falling forward a bit before turning towards the trees so he wouldn’t do it again. He rubbed against his back, finding a bit of blood from sliding down the tree around an hour earlier. It took him another hour to find any place he recognized. From that point on he could guess where his stuff was. He only knew the direction. When he finally found it, he quickly raced to get his clothes on. It was then when he noticed the giant bruise on his left side.

“What the fuck did I get myself into?” He muttered, stroking across the edge but hissing in pain. He didn’t even dare touch the center, where most of the damage was. It’d be there for weeks even if he gave it medical supervision.

He emerged out from the forest again, luckily near his house. This was probably one of the worst things to deal with, the sneaking in and out. His room was on the second floor, meaning he would have to go through the kitchen to get there. The front door was too much, leading him straight into the kitchen. The back door was the best, he’d hide his bag in the laundry room and no one would think it didn’t go there.

He leaned the door in a little, happy to find it unlocked. He placed his shoes at the door and the bag leaning against a cabinet. No one was in the laundry room to greet him. Both the washer and dryer were already running. There were noises coming from the living room but no one had noticed he had slipped in yet. He opened one of the cabinets to find the mirror and cringed, looking over himself. He was a mess no matter how much he tried to look normal when he would walk through the house.

After pulling one final small twig from his hair, he opened the door and entered the house. His older sister and her family were up, watching television together. They didn’t notice as he slipped by the side of them. At least they didn’t until he reached the home stretch.

“Where were you last night?” His older sister, Noemi grabbed his shoulder and guided him away from the living room. “You didn’t want to come and then you’re gone when we get back.”

“It’s a long story.” Lance tried slipping out of her grasp to get to the stairs but she stopped him.

“So start explaining.” He hesitated. It wasn’t that he didn’t have a cover story. It’s that he wasn’t the best at remembering them. Even when he did, they were always filled with contradictions.

“I went last minute camping with a friend.” He said and she glared at him.

“You were sick last night. There’s no way you went camping in the condition you were in.”

“I know.” Lance looked away, trying to not keep eye contact with him.

“I’m starting to worry. This is looking like a reoccurring thing that you do and it just doesn’t seem safe. I know you’re young but sometimes cool things are dangerous.”

“I’m not partying, I know better!” He probably didn’t.

“Then what are you doing?” She stared him down with daggers and he could definitely feel it.

“I can’t explain.” He could, he was just scared to.

“Whatever is going on, I can help. I’m your family.”

“You can’t help with this.”

“You think that but you’re probably wrong.”

“Noemi,” Ester was at the bottom of the stairs and Lance definitely appreciated her nosy existence right now. “It’s okay. He hung out at Shiro’s place and then fell asleep.” Noemi backed off and headed back to the couch with her daughters. Lance took a deep breath and looked over to Ester. “You look like a mess.”

“I know.” Lance mumbled and passed her to go up the stairs. Thankfully, the shower was open. All the stuff he had knocked over last night was put back perfectly to where it usually was. That was probably due to his mother, or one of his siblings, or extended family members.

He felt better after a few minutes in the shower. He also looked a bit more alive than what his nightly activities had left him with. He was careful in the shower, avoiding the bruise on his side. Now that it was washed, it looked a lot better than it did covered in dirt but still hurt to touch. He would have to be careful.

Ester was in his room when he entered and sighed, looking through his drawers. He was only wearing his boxers but he didn’t mind that his sister was there. A plus about being a big family was the lack of care about clothing. His mother’s rule was for the parts to be covered. He pulled on a pair of jeans after throwing his dirty clothes into his basket. He slipped on a shirt and looked over to Ester, who was sitting on his bed.

“Thanks for that.” Lance said, adjusting the bottom of his shirt. He shook his head, letting some of the water out of his hair. He looked over to Ester who was hesitant to talk.

“I’m sorry.” She said and he gave her a questioning look. She looked up from the floor and said it again. “I’m sorry.”

“What are you apologizing for?”

“I couldn’t stop your friends from coming.” Her words reminded him of what had gone down the night before. “I tried but I couldn’t.”

“Let’s not talk about it.” He looked away from her and out to his window. His hand rubbed against each other as he grew nervous about the topic.

She hesitated before continuing. “It isn’t just you, I hope you know.”

“What?” He looked back over to her.

“Pidge and their family can use magic and Hunk can see the dead, or something.” She explained and he held onto the dresser next to him. “Lance, they care about you. At least make sure they know you’re alive.”

“What if being what I am is bad in this other world, huh? What if I’m hated now?”

“You’re being irrational. They don’t hate you.”

“What about Keith. You didn’t mention him and he was there. He’s human then, right?” Lance was now pacing but stopped in front of Ester. “What if he completely hates all of us because none of us are human in a sense?”

“He went after you last night and he was okay with Pidge and Hunk.”

“Yeah but he wasn’t happy with me!”

“He was angry-“

“See, even you are admitting it!”

“He was angry with you not telling your friends. Nothing was said about what you are.”

“Sure, that’s comforting!”

“Lance you need to calm down.”

Lance would fight back if his phone didn’t start going off. He took it off the dresser and found an unknown id calling him. He flashed the number to his sister, who also didn’t know who it was, and then answered it. “Hello?” He tried to adjust his voice to be normal and not on the brink of tears.

“Lance?” He responded with a quick yes and there was a sigh of relief from the other end. “Oh thank God, you’re alive. We’re all worried about you.”

“Who is this?” He asked and looked over to Ester before looking back to the floor.

“Oh, it’s Hunk! I’m calling from Keith’s phone, mine died and we’re all at his place.” There was some ruckus from the other side before Hunk returned to the phone. “We were hoping you could come hang out, too. It’s really up to you, especially after last night.”

Lance started to open his mouth before being stopped by Ester, who was now by his side and listening to the conversation. “Do not say no.” He muted the conversation. “If you say no, it’s never going to get better between the four of you.”

“Ester-“

“They wouldn’t make sure you were okay and then invite you over if they hated you.” Lance couldn’t say that she didn’t have a point. Hunk and Pidge, he wasn’t sure about Keith yet, weren’t those types of people. If what she said earlier was also true, he’s not alone and they probably understood. “I can’t pretend I know what you go through but at least they’d be able to more than I ever could.”

Lance hesitated before going back to the phone call. He agreed to go over later, Hunk seemed relieved by that. After that there was nothing else to say and they told each other that they’d see each other later. He put his phone down back on the dresser and looked over to his sister. She whispered that he’d be fine and left the room. He didn’t feel any more confident about the situation.

~

Not only one person was worried, all of them were worried. Neither of them really explained what had happened to Shiro but Pidge was very convinced something had happened between Matt and Shiro the night before. Shiro seemed to be still thinking about that.

“You guys can make breakfast if you’re hungry.” Before Shiro could say anything else, everyone was out of the living room and in the kitchen. Even Keith felt as if he needed to be invited to eat.

“You only have cheerios? What is wrong with you?” Pidge complained as Keith took bowls down.

“What’s wrong with cheerios? They cheer you up.” Hunk defended and put them next to the bowls. Pidge was hunting down the milk in the fridge. Hunk was pouring cereal into the bowls as Keith grabbed spoons.

“You put the cereal in first?” Keith asked curiously and both Pidge and Hunk looked at him weirdly.

“You don’t?” Pidge was the first to speak and cringed as the boy shook his head. “How disassociated from society are you?” Pidge started to pour milk into the bowls and Keith stopped them before they got to the last bowl.

“I’m going to put soy milk in mine.” He said and they put the milk down. He pulled out a different carton from the fridge. “I’m lactose intolerant.”

Before long, someone knocked at the door. The three of them all looked at each other, wondering who was going to open it before Shiro did it himself. He invited Lance in who faked a smile. Shiro left the room after Lance made his way into the kitchen, hands in his jacket pockets.

“Do you want some?” Hunk asked and he shook his head, avoiding eye contact.

“I still have that sickening taste in my mouth.” He said, motioning to his face and nodded a little. No one seemed to talk for a while after that. No one was sure what to say and everyone was surprised when Lance was the first to speak up. “I’m sorry about everything.”

Hunk was the first to respond, putting his bowl on the counter and walking over to Lance. “You have no reason to apologize to us.” He put his hands on the shoulders of the other boy. “We were pushy and if you wanted to keep it low-key then it’s low-key. It should have been you that had told us and when you were ready.”

“He’s right so don’t even fight it.” Pidge added and Keith nodded, smiling just a bit.

“Thanks.” Lance smiled too.


End file.
